Get the scoop on all the news and events before the Cannes Film Festival 2016

The 69th edition of the Festival de Cannes will be taking taking place from 11 to 22 May 2016. This year`s edition will be presided by the Australian director, screenwriter and producer, George Miller. The official poster was designed using stills from Jean-Luc Godard‘s film Contempt.

It’s all there. The steps, the sea, the horizon: a man’s ascent towards his dream, in a warm Mediterranean light that turns to gold. As an image it is reminiscent of a timeless quote used at the beginning of Contempt: “Cinema replaces our gaze with a world in harmony with our desires”.

And so it is Michel Piccoli who in 2016, from the roof of the famous villa designed by the writer Curzio Malaparte, will open the red carpet for the 69th Festival de Cannes. It’s a symbolic choice, since this film about the making of a film – regarded by many as one of the finest ever made in CinemaScope (the Piccoli/Bardot pairing along with Fritz Lang, Raoul Coutard’s cinematography, Georges Delerue’s music, and so on and so forth) – had such a considerable impact on the history of film and cinephilia.

This 69th Festival de Cannes poster has been designed by Hervé Chigioni and his graphic designer Gilles Frappier. The 2016 visual identity has been created by Philippe Savoir (Filifox).

The 69th Cannes Film Festival Official Poster. Photo: festival-cannes.fr

Director George Miller will be surrounded by eight luminaries of world cinema, from Iran, Denmark, United States, Italia, France, Canada and Hungary. The Jury will therefore include four women and four men around George Miller. Their task will be to decide between the 21 films in Competition in order to select the winners – to be announced on stage at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 22nd May. The film awarded by the Palme d’or will be screened this same evening, in the presence of the Jury and the entire team of the winning film.

Mexico is set to have a high profile at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with the participation of Mexican films, actors and judges. Mexican short film “Las Razones del Mundo” (“The Reasons in the World”) will be debuted in the festival’s Cinefondation section, which presents works by film students.

Also Mexican actor and director Diego Luna has been selected to serve on the jury of the festival’s Un Certain Regard competition, which is designed to promote young talent and unique cinematic styles.

As always the red carpet will be the place where our favorite movie stars sizzle and this year Julia Roberts, Woody Allen, Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard and Javier Bardem will be hitting the red carpet.